Groups want more support for anti-tobacco programs

By McClatchy News Service

Published: Friday, December 7, 2012 at 09:40 AM.

“North Carolina is one of the most disappointing states in our report and has taken a giant step backward by eliminating funding for its successful tobacco prevention program,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“Unless state leaders act quickly to restore funding for tobacco prevention, North Carolina will pay a high price with more kids smoking, more lives lost to tobacco, and higher tobacco-related health-care costs.”

Economists are not surprised by the limited spending on prevention programs since most states have become dependent on MSA money and tobacco excise taxes to fill gaps in their budgets.

The state’s QuitlineNC program received some one-time funding from DHHS in early 2012 for free nicotine-replacement therapy products. Some initiatives are being funded by a $2.7 million federal block grant.

“There are certainly some defenders of the prevention programs in the General Assembly,” said N.C. Sen. Peter Brunstetter, R-Forsyth. “But there are also still many folks who questioned the efficacy of or need for the programs.”

Besides the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, coalition members are American Heart Association, Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes an annual recommendation of what each state should provide for tobacco-prevention programs, including $106.8 million for North Carolina for 2012.

WINSTON-SALEM -- A coalition of public-health advocacy groups took North Carolina’s elected leaders to task Thursday for keeping the funding spigot cut off for tobacco-prevention programs.

The coalition issues an annual national report on tobacco-prevention funding that follows up on an initial study titled “Broken promises to our children.”

Tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., agreed in 1998 to settle lawsuits that 46 state attorneys general brought over smoking-related health-care costs by paying those states about $206 billion over more than 20 years.

In 2011, the General Assembly chose to abolish the N.C. Health and Wellness Fund after 10 years in existence as part of an attempt at resolving the state’s budget gap.

That meant the fund’s $32.9 million annual allocation from the Master Settlement Agreement now goes to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The prevention programs received $17.3 million in leftover funding in fiscal year 2011-12, but the legislature designated no money for 2012-13.

As a result, the coalition said North Carolina was one of only four states to not budget any money for the programs in 2012, even though it was projected to receive a combined $433 million in revenue from the MSA and tobacco excise taxes.

“North Carolina is one of the most disappointing states in our report and has taken a giant step backward by eliminating funding for its successful tobacco prevention program,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

“Unless state leaders act quickly to restore funding for tobacco prevention, North Carolina will pay a high price with more kids smoking, more lives lost to tobacco, and higher tobacco-related health-care costs.”

Economists are not surprised by the limited spending on prevention programs since most states have become dependent on MSA money and tobacco excise taxes to fill gaps in their budgets.

The state’s QuitlineNC program received some one-time funding from DHHS in early 2012 for free nicotine-replacement therapy products. Some initiatives are being funded by a $2.7 million federal block grant.

“There are certainly some defenders of the prevention programs in the General Assembly,” said N.C. Sen. Peter Brunstetter, R-Forsyth. “But there are also still many folks who questioned the efficacy of or need for the programs.”

Besides the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, coalition members are American Heart Association, Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention makes an annual recommendation of what each state should provide for tobacco-prevention programs, including $106.8 million for North Carolina for 2012.

The programs are necessary, the coalition says, in order to offset the combined $321.3 million tobacco companies spent on marketing their products in North Carolina in 2012.

The coalition said the programs have played a key role in reducing the number of N.C. high-school students who smoke.

According to three national health studies released in the past year, the number of N.C. high-school students who smoke ranges from 15.8 percent to 18.7 percent. By contrast, the rate was 27.8 percent as recently as 2001.

North Carolina is not alone in spending smaller amounts or no money on tobacco-prevention programs this year even though the 46 states will collect $25.7 billion in tobacco settlement and tobacco excise taxes.

By spending $459.5 million on the programs, 1.8 percent of the overall collections, the states are spending less than 2 cents on every dollar collected in tobacco revenue. The CBC recommended $3.7 billion being spent on the programs.

“The combination of regular and significant increases in tobacco taxes, passage of comprehensive smoke-free laws and fully funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs is the most effective way to curb the tobacco epidemic in this country,” said John Seffrin, chief executive of the Cancer Action Network, the advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society.

The manufacturers, in opposing higher tobacco-excise taxes, say the states should use more of the MSA money for youth-smoking prevention and health-related initiatives.